Draft Bofur's Treasure
by CerberusLoadout
Summary: [AUTHORS NOTE] This is just a temporary placement for a new story that I may or may not be continuing.


Boot footsteps echoed through the empty halls. Long since abandoned and empty, a moth's flutter would have caused a disturbance in the silence. Bofur walked through nervously as his eyes darted around the darkness around him.

Erebor was once a happy place, he thought to himself, but now it was as close to what one could imagine the inside of a tomb looked and felt like. In fact, that is exactly what it was; a tomb. The bones and mummified bodies of dwarves all hidden beneath stone and ash, their ghosts probably lingering around.

The smallest fall of a pebble made the dwarf jump, holding his torch out like a sword. Bofur gathered himself and slowly straightened up, walking further down the dark corridor.

He often took small walks by himself to just think about things. He had many a worry on his mind that just talking to someone would not do. He needed to figure things out for himself, work them out in his head and then take in the big picture and where he belonged in it. And he also liked to look at the bigger questions of life, like why did this have to happen? Why was he here? Where was he?

No, where _was_ he?

Looking around, he realized the faded light from the main hall was gone behind him, just empty darkness and shadow.

Panicking, Bofur turned quickly and waved his torch around in as he moved to try and scan his surroundings. Luckily, no dragons or dwarrow ghosts, just piles of rock and broken wood. Actually. . .

Walking closer, he held the torch up and inspected the old, broken runes. He couldn't tell what they said, having been burnt and scuffed up by the destruction of everything. But this was no doubt an old entrance to something.

He carefully pressed his hand against the wood and pushed it back, moving beneath the beam and pushing up with his shoulder to move it away from the stone door. With a huff he finally cleared the path, then squeezed through the doors and into the room.

It was a vast hall with bellowed ceilings that reached so far up he couldn't see the top, even his breathing made an echo. It also looked very empty.

"Why didn't they hide in here..?" He murmured to himself, his voice carrying around him in an eerily strange way. His breath puffed out cold, and he was rather glad he had his coat on.

He walked further inside the room, finding old dusty relics on pedestals, untouched by time and the events that overtook the mountain. His fingers grazed over the dulled silver helmets and armor, leaving trails in the dust and polishing away the grime of being unkempt.

Taking another step Bofur almost tripped, stumbling forward and quickly bringing his torch down to look at his feet. A beautiful rug—or once was beautiful—was turned and ruffled to a bump. He gently stepped on the bump and straightened out the surface, then walked on with a satisfied smile.

The walls held carvings of impressive craftsmanship all depicting a different event around each turn of the stone. Bofur ran his fingers over the grooves in the stone, looking at the fine details as one story told of the battle of Azanulbizar. His fingers trailed over the fearsome looking orcs carved into the rock. His hand slid down the stone and touched something set out on a slab in front of the mural…

He yelped and jumped back, his torch falling to the ground and he hastily moved to pick it up, holding it out in front of him fearfully.

It was a mummified had…it's nails had grown long and threatening, the arm past the wrist having been obviously sliced away from whoever's body with a rough sword. The skin had started peeling away and hanging off the bones, leathery and dry looking…

His eyes strayed trained on the hand until a strange, ethereal glow came from the corner of the room. It took some willpower to look away from the gruesome claw, but he was taken in a trance by the soft, blue-white glow emanating from a small chest on a stone pedestal.

Curiosity set into his heart as he slowly stepped closer and closer, the glow getting brighter as he approached, his hand holding the torch falling to his side weakly as he reached forward and very carefully—a feathers touch—lifted the lid.

The bright light nearly blinded him with a startled yell, dropping the torch onto the ground and stumbling back until he tripped again and fell onto the ground with his arm covering his eyes from the light.

Bofur whimpered as he lowered his arm and the light faded, now only the soft glow remaining inside the chest.

Lifting himself from the ground, the dwarf stepped back to the chest and peeked inside. Gems. White, almost diamond gems lay inside, the glow coming from nowhere in particular but he figured probably from the gems themselves.

The _Arkenstone_ had a strange glow about it, maybe these were somewhat like that…maybe these were tiny Arkenstones. But if that were the case, then why were they locked away in a chest and forgotten deep inside the mountain? If they were important, why weren't they taken?

Bofur reached in and picked up a handful of gems, then gasped as they burnt his hand. He stumbled back as the burning remained in his hand, and the gems he dropped suddenly started to glow. His eyes were wide with fear that something was going to happen—something bag most likely.

Then suddenly the glow lifted like a ball of light, mist surrounding it like a ghost as it floated slowly around and almost lighting the entire room.

He watched it as it drifted down like smoke and hovered around his body, then landed against his midsection then disappeared in a puff. Bofur blinked rapidly as he watched it just… _poof_.

Bofur scrambled around on the ground as he looked for the ball of light but it was nowhere to be seen. His loud, frantic breathing echoed around him as he tried to stand, but was brought back down to his knees as a sharp pain gripped his insides.

He groaned and whimpered as he laid down, curling into himself as the pain would not cease. It felt like someone had jabbed a white hot sword into his gut and swirled around his insides.

Bofur wailed in excruciating pain, squeezing his eyes shut as it even hurt to breathe or move the slightest. His mind was whirling and what went by in seconds felt like days…until it was suddenly over.

Slowly he opened his eyes, now met with only the soft glow of his discarded torch on the ground a few feet away. He was afraid to take a deep breath until he couldn't help himself, but found no pain to follow.

He sat up and pulled his shaky arms around his legs, his eyes still wide and full of fear as he looked around. He was absolutely alone in the room, no glowing gems, no ghost light, nothing.

Bofur stood on unstable legs and walked over to pick up his torch, casting a very nervous and worried look at the chest which had somehow closed and locked itself up.

He quickly squeezed himself out of the room and stumbled down the hallway until he reached a spot of speckled light that filtered in through a hole in the wall. He found a slab of fallen column and sat down heavily, taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself the best he could.

It was a dream? It was…just a dream. He must have hit his head on a rock or something…that was it. The chest was never glowing, he just saw things. Probably that creepy hand freaked him out enough…

He took off his hat and wiped his forehead with his shaky hand, then willed it to stop as he placed his hat on the stone beside him. He couldn't handle all this…

 _Hello?_

A soft voice echoed…it sounded like someone was right next to him—

He turned and nearly fell, only to find nobody there.

Frantically he looked around and saw nobody. Now his nerves were getting to him, this was ridiculous.

"H-Hello..?" He answered his voice so very quiet and uneven.

 _I know your voice._

Bofur gasped and stood up all too quickly, his mind still swimming from what happened back there. He stumbled and leaned against the wall.

 _Do be careful, and please don't fall!_

"Who's there?!" He yelped, now very angry and not at all in the mood for whoever was playing tricks on him "Come out!"

 _I can't come out—I don't know where I am._

Bofur growled and grabbed a piece of broken wood, holding it up like his mattock and turning around. The voice sounded so close, and…it was a girls voice.

"R-Really…Where are you?"

 _I just said I don't know. I_ was _in a chest…  
then I think you opened it. Now it's just dark._

He froze, dropping the wood at his feet and just stared into the nothingness of the dark hallway. The chest…something _was_ in the chest! He wasn't losing his mind or hit his head, there was something there and he…

"Who…are you? _What_ are you? What were you doing in the chest?"

 _I don't know who I am. I don't even have a name.  
As for what I am…I think I was those gems.  
I remember being locked in there a long time ago,  
and my glow had gone unnoticed until you found me.  
_

"Yer…the _gems_?" Bofur said slowly, not exactly believing what he was hearing…or how he was hearing it. Never had he heard of gems having a consciousness, but he had heard long lost silly tales of inanimate objects having a voice.

"What did you do to me? Why'd you hurt me?"

 _I did not mean to hurt you.  
When you touched my gems I think…you…  
I think we merged. I can feel your heartbeat  
and how you feel…why are you so scared?_

"Because I don't know what's happening!" Bofur scoffed, walking back over to his little stump of stone and sitting down heavily, covering his face with his hands. He sighed and after a moment slowly brought his hands away "I've nearly died multiple times on the journey, our leader is losing his mind, and I don't know what just happened to me…-"

 _What's your name?_

"M-My name..?" He said quietly, finding himself very surprise at the question. She was in his head—or somewhere—but she didn't know his name. Funny. "It's Bofur. My name is Bofur."

 _Hello, Bofur._

He smiled at that and closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall with a heavier sigh than before and fining himself actually relaxing now…

 _Bofur…_

 _Bofur!_

"Bofur?"

Suddenly a familiar voice called out to him and the dwarf sat up quickly, opening his eyes and rubbing away whatever sleep had collected there. "Yeah—Sorry, I'm awake…"

Bofur turned and saw Fíli standing there, tilting his head with a curious expression "You were actually asleep? I didn't think you of all people could fall asleep in this place."

"Well, I haven't exactly gotten the best sleep since we've been here, I must have gotten too tried and just drifted. I had just sat down for a moment.." He hummed, turning to gather his hat but sneaking a happy smile that only the blonde prince gave him.

"Well, the others heard a scream coming from this way. I thought you'd gotten hurt or something." Fíli said with his normal smile but his tone was more worried.

"Screams?" Like the ones he'd made when he was literally dying on the inside from some crazy gem ghost possessing his body? "I didn't hear anything. Maybe you guys heard a ghost~" He chuckled and stood up.

"Ha ha, very funny. I think Smaug scared all those away. But as long as you didn't hear anything and aren't hurt, Bombur started making dinner before I left. It's probably done now if you'd like to come."

"Prince Fíli, is this _you_ asking _me_ to _dinner_?" Bofur gasped dramatically, placing a hand over his chest in surprise, making the prince laugh merrily and even blushing.

"Yes," Fili bowed and held out his hand with a cocky smirk "Yes it is."

Bofur smiled brightly and took Fílis' hand in his and took a step to stand beside the prince as they started to walk down the hallway.


End file.
